Fort Stockton man remembers seeing JFK day before assassination

Audrie Palmer

Published 10:15 am, Tuesday, November 20, 2012

When Trey Velasco read in a story that the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza had uncovered home video footage of the late President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jackie, he sat down at his computer to watch it.

The video footage was of a reception for the League of United Latin American Citizens held at the Rice Hotel in downtown Houston the day before Kennedy's assassination.

The story and video had piqued Velasco's interest because he knew his grandparents and parents attended the convention. While he was watching the silent film on the museum's website and drinking his morning cup of coffee, he was shocked to see his family appear prominently on the video.

"When I saw the footage I thought, 'Wouldn't it be something if the camera panned the crowd and I saw my grandparents and parents?'" he said. "The next thing I know it, I see my grandmother and mother in their fur coats and then my grandfather and my dad.

"I have to say I actually got emotional seeing actual footage of my dear grandparents and immediately called my sister and my parents."

His family was elated to be part of the historical footage.

Thursday marks the 49th anniversary of the president's death. The Kennedys were in Houston on the second stop of a five-city tour of Texas. He was assassinated in Dallas the next day before finishing the tour, which was to have ended with a dinner in Austin.

In the hotel's grand ballroom, President Kennedy spoke to the group of several hundred LULAC members at a convention that brought in people from different chapters around the state including those from San Antonio, Corpus Christi and even the Permian Basin.

Frank Velasco Jr. was 24 years old at the time and president of the LULAC Fort Stockton chapter. Trey's paternal grandfather, Frank Velasco Sr., was a successful local rancher and civic leader.

Frank Velasco Jr. said he was always interested in politics and in the 1960s became involved in the Jaycees and later was admitted as the Fort Stockton's group first Hispanic member.

Velasco remembers attending the convention 49 years ago today. While he didn't get to meet the president, he was standing about 20 to 30 feet from where he spoke and they took pictures at the event.

On the way back home, driving between Houston and San Antonio, the news of the president's death came over the radio.

"It was just devastating. I couldn't believe it," he said.

The film was donated in February 2011 to the Sixth Floor Museum by Roy Botello, who once served as the first scholarship corporation chairman of LULAC in San Antonio.

Botello had brought his home movie camera and captured silent color film of the president and first lady's arrival as they welcomed dignitaries and addressed the crowd.

Velasco said he didn't know the video even existed until his son Trey called to tell him about it. Seeing the president was something that has always been in the back of his mind and when he watched the video for the first time, he recognized himself, his wife and his parents right away.

Those memories then came flooding back in.

"It's something that I'll treasure for the rest of my life. To be there the day before he got assassinated is something I'll always remember," he said.